Flexible and remote working options a must, lord chancellor insists.

Gender equality in the legal profession will not be achieved without a fundamental change in the way law firms work, justice secretary Liz Truss told a women lawyers’ network.

At a Women In Law London event to mark International Women’s Day, Truss told the Inner Temple audience: ‘As an outsider I observe there is still a culture of presenteeism in many law firms.’

She praised the legal co-operative Obelisk, whose members can work flexibly or remotely for clients including Goldman Sachs, BT Siemens and Barclays. Such models, she added, demonstrated ‘a focus on what people are doing and their output – not whether their jacket is on their desk’.